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New ~$800 Gaming Machine

J

Jon55

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Messages
2,349
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming (Skyrim and StarCraft 2), general internet/Office use, etc.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~$800 shipping+tax included
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Los Angeles
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
The entire machine (case, mobo, CPU/CPU cooler, GPU, RAM, HDD/SSD, PSU, etc.), monitor, and possibly some cheap speakers
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Keyboard + mouse
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes!
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Don't have one
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Asap
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Standard features - NO Crossfire/SLI. USB 3.0/SATA 6, but those are all mostly standard anyway
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 64-bit (bought it a while back)
 
How big are you in your gaming? What level of visual quality do you prefer in your games?

If push comes to shove, could you increase your budget an additional $100 or $200?
 
tiraides said:
How big are you in your gaming? What level of visual quality do you prefer in your games?

If push comes to shove, could you increase your budget an additional $100 or $200?
Click to expand...

Greatest bang for the buck generally. I could do $900 if it truly came to it
 
Jon55 said:
Sadly no (well, there is, but I don't have time to run out there)
Click to expand...
Yeah I live near L.A as well and that Microcenter is a 45 minute to an hour drive (or longer) due to SoCal traffic. So your sentiment is understandable.
Jon55 said:
I was even possibly considering this build:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/13xWX
Click to expand...
That build is way too reliant on MIR to hit its target price.

Do you happen to have a decent case that you can reuse? Or a DVD burner that you can use just for the OS install? I mean do you really burn that many DVDs?
 
Danny Bui said:
Yeah I live near L.A as well and that Microcenter is a 45 minute to an hour drive (or longer) due to SoCal traffic. So your sentiment is understandable.

That build is way too reliant on MIR to hit its target price.

Do you happen to have a decent case that you can reuse? Or a DVD burner that you can use just for the OS install? I mean do you really burn that many DVDs?
Click to expand...

Exactly! I love MicroCenter but just don't have the time this week to run out there :p

To be honest, that PCPartPicker build is one I saw that someone else made. I do not need an optical drive. I also do not have any spare cases.
 
If you have to have overclocking, this is the best I can do:
$210 - Intel Core i5-3570K CPU
$110 - Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Intel Z77 ATX Motherboard
$52 - Corsair CMV8GX3M1A1333C9 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$204 - HIS IceQ H787Q2G2MRadeon HD 7870 GHZ PCI-E Video Card with FC3: Blood Dragon, Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, and Bioshock Infinite
$56 - Seagate Spinpoint ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$61 - XFX Core Edition PRO550W 550W PSU
$43 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case
$25 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
$130 - LG 23EN43T-B 23" LCD Monitor
---
Total: $891 shipped plus tax. Comes out to about $976 with tax.

It is technically "last-gen" in a way but it'll still outperform most AMD setups in games.

Dropping the overclocking requirement gets you this:
$183 - Intel Core i5-3330 CPU
$73 - Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H Intel B75 mATX Motherboard
$52 - Corsair CMV8GX3M1A1333C9 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$204 - HIS IceQ H787Q2G2MRadeon HD 7870 GHZ PCI-E Video Card with FC3: Blood Dragon, Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, and Bioshock Infinite
$66 - Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$61 - XFX Core Edition PRO550W 550W PSU
$43 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case
$25 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
$130 - LG 23EN43T-B 23" LCD Monitor
---
Total: $827 shipped plus tax.

You might be wondering why that 3rd party HSF is still there: We're both in SoCal and the summer is coming soon. That means it's going to be pretty damn hot here soon. Even with relatively low power and heat of the Core i5, it may still get too hot with the stock HSF. Hence the 3rd party HSF.

That HD 7870 includes $75 worth of free games so it's worth getting. The above also has a far better bang for the buck hard drive.
 
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If you buy from Tigerdirect.com, they do not charge sales tax in Ca ;)
 
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